IO Interactive the developers of the Hitman franchise and publisher Square Enix apparently are planning the release of a new Hitman title later this year as confirmed on the Hitman Twitter feed.

While it has been teased in the past, this is the first time we really know for sure that it is coming later this year.

While the last release for Hitman was Absolution way back in 2012, things have been quiet since then. We have heard some whispers and seem some clues that have suggested it was in development, but no official time table till now.

While the info on Twitter says they have more to share, we have to guess that we will not hear more about it till the E3 time frame with a holiday release likely planned if they do intend to ship in 2015.

Square Enix has registered the Just Cause 3 domain which is likely an indication that development could be happening on this title.

The thing is that Avalanche Studios who has developed Just Cause in the past is already working on Mad Max. Given that bit of info it could be that a second team at Avalanche is starting work on Just Cause 3 or maybe another studio or team will be handling the development of Just Cause 3.

Hard to say with more questions than answers, but it would seem that Square Enix could be getting their ducks in a row so to speak for an E3 announcement. We will have to just wait and see as we don’t expect any comment from Square Enix till at least E3.

Developer United Front Games has announced on the company’s web site that a sequel to Sleeping Dogs is in development for a yet to be announced release date. The second release in the franchise will be called Triad Wars and it will be again published by Square Enix. (The game has yet to be officially announced or confirmed by publisher Square Enix yet.)

UFG says that the trademarking of the title Triad Wars was reported on in so many places, that it let the cat out of the bag so to speak. UFG does not go on to confirm which platforms the sequel will be released for, but sources suggest that it will be offered for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PC.

It is believed that the game is being targeted for a very late 2014 or early 2015 release. Whispers also suggest that this time around the game may include an online multiplayer component as part of the game, but that might just be wishful thinking.

While Sleeping Dogs received very good reviews overall, the future of the franchise was in doubt as sales were not as high as Square Enix and UFG might have liked. Still the game was a solid offering with some excellent DLC that added more to the original game. Those that missed it, might want to take a look at Sleeping Dogs as we found it a lot of fun to play and quite an enjoyable title. We are glad that the franchise will get a second installment and thanks for UFG for confirming that it is in development.

Despite selling millions of copies, Square Enix has missed its sales targets. All three of the publisher’s major releases, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution, and the new Tomb Raider, have not performed as well as well as the company expected.

The new Tomb Raider reboot is on track to sell 3.4 million copies by March 2013, and Hitman: Absolution has moved 3.6 million copies, while Sleeping Dogs has sold over 1.75 million copies, but this is still far from the almost 19 million HD games that the company had forecast to sell. (These numbers apparently do not include digital download sales.)

The problems for the company don’t stop there, as Square Enix believes that its marketing efforts in North America were ineffective, with two-thirds of these sales coming from outside of North America. Sleeping Dogs, which was rescued from Activision, did not sell nearly as well as expected, and this looks to have had a significant impact on the company’s sales numbers, as well.

The sluggish North American sales certainly hurt the publisher. All three titles received decent reviews, so it was not the quality of the games that was an issue. Square Enix will have to invest in a revised marketing strategy in North America going forward, but it is unclear what steps the company will take to help build their North American sales.

Yoichi Wada CEO of Square Enix will step down from leading the company due to the financial loss experienced by the company. Yosuke Matsuda will be taking over as the new CEO of the company after approval by the shareholders in June. Square Enix expects the failure of the console business to meet its sales targets and the flat performance in the company’s arcade business to impact the company and lead to a net loss for the year.

Square Enix has reached an agreement to license the Unreal Engine 4, as well as Unreal Engine 3, from Epic Games. The deal gives the publisher rights to develop multiple titles using the Unreal Engine technology.

In addition to the licensing of the engine, Square Enix will receive “local support” from Epic Games in Japan to assist with the development. The move might be a bit surprising to some, as it has been known for some time that Square Enix has been funding the development of its own next generation engine which is known as the Luminous Engine. According to our sources, the company plans to continue the development of the Luminous Engine which will be used for some Square Enix titles.

It is not known which titles will make use of which engine, but the deal give the publisher options going forward into the new next generation consoles. The majority of Square Enix titles in the past have used proprietary engines developed by the publisher; but the Unreal licensing deal provides the company with an option it has not taken full advantage of in the past.

United Front and publisher Square Enix have confirmed that new DLC content will be headed to Sleeping Dogs this October. The new DLC package will include a number of new missions and powerful upgrades for players to use in the exciting open world title.

In addition, a free Community Gift Pack will also be released that will be the first premium story-driven DLC pack for Sleeping Dogs. More specifics on the Community Pack will be unveiled at the upcoming Comic Con in New York.

While all of the prices and release dates have not been set in stone just yet, upcoming DLC will include the Street Racer Pack, The SWAT Pack (which adds 20 cop missions), The Tactical Soldier Pack, and, of course, the free Community Gift Pack. We expect the specifics to be made official at Comic Con in New York on October 14th.

Square Enix and developer United Front plan to go all in on the downloadable content for Sleeping Dogs. The plan is for six months of downloadable content for the open-world action title that will start arriving in September.

The first content pack will be available on release day and is called the Retro Triad Pack, which is an 80s-inspired collection of old school outfits and a funky kung-Fu van. Additional packs will feature the high-speed Racing Pack and an explosive SWAT pack. The high-speed racing and explosive SWAT pack are expected for release in September, but additional details will be announced soon.

Sleeping Dogs, which started life as a True Crime title from Activision before they decided to drop the project, was later picked up by Square Enix and rebranded as Sleeping Dogs. It releases in North America today and in Europe later in the week.

Fuseproject has updated its OUYA Kickstarter page with yet another neat update of partnership with Square Enix that will bring Final Fantasy as a launch title for OUYA console.

To be precise, Square Enix will kick off its partnership with OUYA with Final Fantasy III title that will be a launch title on OUYA. The title will also be available as a demo in case you want to give it a try before buying it.

Fuseproject also noted that this will be Final Fantasy III like it has never been seen before as the game will be updated to "exploit OUYA's high-definition resolution in glorious graphic detail".

The Final Fantasy III title and partnership with Square Enix will certainly bring a "back" or two more for OUYA project that is going to end in eight days. Currently Fuseproject scored over 45,500 backers with over US $5.8 million of US $950k goal.

We have been hearing whispers for some time that Thief 4 has been in development at Eidos Montreal, but there has been little to confirm that this. Now, from an article that appeared on Kotaku, it would appear that the rumors of development difficulties could be accurate.

What seems to be the word now is that the game has been in development for nearly four years, and a number of people associated with the project have since departed. It seems the mess is complicated by a trailer that was leaked after it never was officially released. It has been suggested that Thief 4 was slated for a 2011 appearance but was pulled for reasons that still remain unknown.

With Deus Ex: Human Revolutions taking so long to make it out the door, one has to wonder what is going on, with still no official comment from Square Enix. While we have heard everything from ‘it is done, but it isn’t very good,’ to ‘it needs significant debugging and polish before it would ever be released.’ It is hard to know where the bear really sits. Stay tuned, as we hear from lurkers in the shadows that official comment is coming soon; and that might even end with a cancellation of the project altogether.

What publisher Square Enix will not confirm that developer Avalanche Studios is working on a sequel to Just Cause 2, we believe that the recent domain registrations for Just Cause 3 and Just Cause 4, that there is a good chance that something is up.

Sources say that developer Avalanche Studios has been working on something called Project Mamba, but we told that they are unsure if this is actually Just Cause 3 or a futuristic Mad Max like title that the developer had previously referenced back in 2010.

We tend to believe that an announcement for Just Cause 3 from Square Enix is just around the corner at E3. If it does not happen, the we known for sure that they are going to tell us exactly what it is that Avalanche is working on.